Military SF – Page 6

Maria Lectrix: Morale by Murray Leinster

Saturday, September 5, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Maureen O’Brien has wrapped up her reading of Murray Leinster’s Morale, another Military Science Fiction story set in the same universe as Tanks (which Maureen read a few weeks ago). Sez Maureen:

We’re apparently still fighting the Japanese, too, though I still doubt that anybody Asian would be using the yellow imperial color for an ordinary flag. (Well, it’s not something most people would think about, and it worked as shorthand for his audience.) But really, the identity of the enemy doesn’t seem to have been all that important to either story, which is odd for the days of the “Yellow Peril” showing up tons in sf. (And really, that’s not fair. Japan was building up its military strength all during the early twentieth century, which was why military guys worried about it. It may have fed into racist fears, but Japanese militarism and expansionist imperialism was real.) As would become characteristic of Leinster, even when you meet the enemy face-to-face in “Tanks”, the enemy is made up of ordinary guys. Whatever causes the horrific nature of war, Leinster seems pretty clear that it’s not a matter of furriners being furrin. This makes his characters’ moral outrage at the events in Morale more effective, I think.

You’ll notice how much stronger this story is than Tanks. A year or two can make a big difference in a writer’s skills — or an editor’s, for that matter.

Another fascinating thing about old science fiction is the stark contrast between when people understood the uses of technology (and therefore thought its application was sure to be widespread in ten years), and when the technology actually became practical and widely adopted. Sometimes it just takes a while.

Morale
By Murray Leinster; Read by Maureen O’Brien
6 MP3 Files – Approx. 82 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: August – September 2009
Provider: Archive.org
While America fights a war on one coast, a new front is about to open — the homefront — as the enemy attacks civilian towns with a giant war-machine like no other. But the enemy war-machine is a target, too, and there are more ways to win than with guns… First published in the December 1931 issue of Astounding. This story is set ten years after the events of Tanks.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3| Part 6 & 7 |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Maria Lectrix: Tanks by Murray Leinster

Friday, August 21, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Over at the Maria Lectrix blog and podcast Maureen’s posted all three parts of her reading of Murray Leinster’s Tanks. This is a Military Science Fiction story from the January 1930 issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science (the very first issue). Sez Maureen:

“I liked this story. It has the Leinster sense that ordinary people with their ordinary habits and ordinary weaknesses, are still strong and capable of doing big things, and what is important often goes unnoticed by the eye. This is more or less the opposite of the nastier side of sf/f’s tendency to tell stories of wish fulfillment, where one Supuh Speshul Geenyus saves all those declasse morons who laughed at him in school. Spinrad’s The Iron Dream is not particularly kindly, but he’s right that if you take elitist Speshulness too far, it’s where totalitarianism comes from.

Tanks
By Murray Leinster; Read by Maureen O’Brien
3 MP3 Files – Approx. 77 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: August 2009
In an eerie future that never was, but might have been, two ordinary soldiers hold the fate of a war in their nicotine-stained hands.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3|

[Tanks so much Maureen!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of On Basilisk Station by David Weber

Friday, July 31, 2009 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Ed. – Welcome to Paul [W] Campbell, prestidigitator with Cossmass Productions. This is his first review for SFFaudio.

On Basilisk Station (Book One in the Honor Harrington Series)
By David Weber; Read by Allyson Johnson
15 Hours, 15 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423393382 (CD)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Military SF / War / Space Opera / Politics /

On Basilisk Station is the first of Weber’s Honor Harrington series. A great space opera that quickly builds up to a full out war between the Star Kingdom of Manticoran and her allies against the aggressive and expansionist Republic of Haven. So far there are eleven main novels in the series in print, plus over a half-dozen anthologies and spin-offs.

Mankind has spread out into the stars using a form of Hyperspace which offers the ability of sail along dangerous gravity waves at hundreds, even thousands, of times the speed of light. Some star systems are linked by wormhole termini that offer instantaneous travel between their end points. The benefit to interstellar trade and to fleet maneuvers that this offers is significant. Thus, Basilisk Station is the Royal Manticoran Navy’s picket at one such wormhole. In fact it is a collection of several wormholes that turn the star system of Basilisk into a major hub for commerce. Unfortunately the Republic of Haven’s economy is straining and they are looking at the worlds on the
far side of Basilisk as candidates to bolster their economy. Of course, having Basilisk Station under their control would make their annexation efforts and resultant ‘trade’ much simpler.

Commander Honor Harrington finds her aged and understrength ship being responsible for the entire picket On Basilisk Station. Her crew blame her for their posting to this punishment detail. Honor has been set up to fail. The Havenites are plotting to invade, the aboriginals on the planet below are taking homicide inducing drugs and her Executive Officer hates her.

As an opening volume in a series of this size, On Basilisk Station sets the initial pieces on the board for the following books and the war that develops. However, it doesn’t feel like that is what it is doing. The story is self contained and complete, as are all of the books in the series. Later books do benefit from reading the preceding ones, but it isn’t required. But, I’m not reviewing the series here. It can be a little heavy on the info-dumps at times, such as the history of the Founding of the Manticoran Nobility, Gravity Sails and a few others. Allyson Johnson gets through them well enough, but in audio they do interrupt the flow of the story. Otherwise she brings all the characters to life very well and covers quite a range, from Honor’s soprano all the way down to some gruff old sailors indeed.

Actually hearing Honor’s dialog in a soprano was quite jarring at first as I had read the books before and hadn’t properly assimilated that aspect of her character. Allyson stays truer to the characters and their voices than I had when reading myself. A good performance overall.

There was some slight confusion at times during the climactic battle as the point of view jumped from ship to ship. In print there would be a clear break in the text, but here the scenes flow together perhaps a little too quickly. They do resolves with a few seconds that there has been a scene change, but it still threw me a couple of times.

If you like your space opera with a well thought out political backdrop and with space battles that take into account the danger aboard ship and the scale of space, then On Basilisk Station should keep you happy.

Posted by Paul [W] Campbell

The Guardian: Scales by Alastair Reynolds

Tuesday, June 23, 2009Thursday, January 21, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Says The Guardian…

In this new and exclusive short story, the science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds considers the ways in which the pressures of war shape those who fight them

This is Alastair Reynolds’ first foray into militaristic SF. In it, he explores the transformations war imposes on soldiers as his hero Nico’s mission evolves into something stranger than he could have possibly imagined.

Scales
By Alastair Reynolds; Read by Alastair Reynolds
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Guardian Book Podcast
Podcast: June 19, 2009
A new recruit is sent out to battle in an interstellar war. This is Alastair Reynolds’ first foray into militaristic SF. In it, he explores the transformations war imposes on soldiers as his hero Nico’s mission evolves into something stranger than he could have possibly imagined.

Podcast feed:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/books/podcast.xml

[via FreeSFblogspot.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #029

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #029 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Julie D. of the Forgotten Classic podcast. Listen in as Julie gushes over the new audiobook of Ken Scholes’ novel Lamentation! We also talk Space Opera, libraries, and how to read a paperbook: “Breaking the spine of a book is like breaking the spine of the family dog.” Ya, it’s a Buck Roger-ish show.

Talked about on today’s show:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, David Weber, “The Honor Harrington” series, On Basilisk Station, military SF, Audible Frontiers, John Ringo, March Upcountry, Off Armageddon Reef, Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human, Venus Plus X, To Marry Medusa, Nancy Kress, Beggars In Spain, Infinivox, Blackstone Audio, Beggars And Choosers, Beggars Ride, Children Of Men by P.D. James |READ OUR REVIEW|, BBC Audiobooks America, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, Doctor Who, Audible’s new format 4, radio drama, audio drama, 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennia |READ OUR REVIEW|, Spoken Books Publishing, Dr. Wasserman’s Time Chamber: Preventing Armageddon by Lee Geiger, Lamentation by Ken Scholes, Fantasy, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, George R.R. Martin, Dune by Frank Herbert, Macmillan Audio, Simon Vance, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, The January Dancer, SciPodBooks, LibriVox, The Green Odyssey, Space Vulture, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Grim Space by Ann Aguirre, the “Gap” series by Stephen R. Donaldson, ScottBrickPresents.com, The Phoenix Legacy, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Tony Smith, StarShipSofa, Trophy Wives, Twitter, Neil Gaiman, OTRcat.com, Worldcat.org, the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, Maria Lectrix, giving up blogs for lent.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Starship: Rebel by Mike Resnick

Sunday, February 22, 2009Monday, November 23, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

SFFaudio Essential Starship: Rebel
By Mike Resnick; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 8 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: December 16th 2008
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Opera / Galactic Civilization / Aliens / Rebellion / War / Military SF / Space Station /

The date is 1968 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now. The Republic, dominated by the human race, is in the midst of an all-out war with the Teroni Federation. Almost a year has passed since the events of Starship: Mercenary. Captain Wilson Cole now commands a fleet of almost fifty ships, and he has become the single greatest military force on the Inner Frontier. With one exception. The Republic still comes and goes as it pleases, taking what it wants, conscripting men, and extorting taxes, even though the Frontier worlds receive nothing in exchange. And, of course, the government still wants Wilson Cole and the starship Theodore Roosevelt. He has no interest in confronting such an overwhelming force, and constantly steers clear of them. Then an incident occurs that changes everything, and Cole declares war on the Republic. Outnumbered and always outgunned, his fleet is no match for the Republic’s millions of military vessels, even after he forges alliances with the warlords he previously hunted down. It’s a hopeless cause…but that’s just what Wilson Cole and the Teddy R. are best at.

A good audiobook can make a regular day enjoyable. A great audiobook can put a delightful spring in your step for a whole week. Starship: Rebel has made for absolutely terrific listening. As I was listening to it over the course of a week or so I’d wake up in the morning, remember that I’d still got a few hours of listening left, and smile as if I’d won the Nobel Prize for luck. I’ve heaped a lot of praise for this terrific series of audiobooks since Audible Frontiers started releasing it back in Spring 2008. The closest I’ve come to criticism has been a little humming and hawing about how the series is ‘short on ideas and originality.’ That, it feels like a better version of Star Wars. And that’s all still true, nothing in the Starship series feels anything like innovative. The weapons technology has no new ideas, the faster than light space travel relies on the same few tropes, the aliens are all Star Wars-ish. Despite this, there is an amazing feeling of being safely ensconced in the hands of a master storyteller when listening to this series. The team of writer Mike Resnick with narrator Jonathan Davis is absolutely stupendous.

With this book, Book 4, Resnick is raising the stakes by forcing Captain Cole and the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt to take on the Republic itself. And that’s good, but it isn’t everything. Resnick also pulls an unexpected maneuver – a very important character is killed about a third of the way into the novel – and that hit, a real hit, shakes up that feeling of familiarity and safety in a way that just freezing Han Solo into a block of carbonite can never do. Barring accidents I expect to be enjoying another terrific week when Starship: Flagship, the 5th and final book in the Starship series, comes out in December 2009.

Posted by Jesse Willis